Thank you very much for joining this call, especially in light of us getting together for the discussion just several weeks ago. We will update today on our first quarter results. I'm sure you were pleased to see them as much as we did. All our business segments demonstrated significant revenue growth, especially agriculture, which was the best performer with almost 1/3 uplift of the revenues. We managed to increase our exports, and bearing high logistical costs in the selling and distribution part of our P&L, we managed to increase our margin on a growth basis and on EBITDA basis. If we strip the IFRS 11 impact, our margins also widened at EBITDA level from 28%-37%.
If we are looking at consolidated cash flows, we continue to focus on maximizing the operating cash flows. We keep our investment program in the first quarter at maintenance levels. We also repeat part of our debt, which resulted in a lowering of our leverage ratio below one times of net debt to EBITDA. Going into the segment performances, we start with agriculture. Higher volumes of sales of corn and also higher realized prices helped us to achieve good results. The pricing environment for other commodities was less favorable, including wheat and sunflower seeds. Of course, the biggest impact on our P&L are selling and distribution costs, which had to...
which increased several times because of logistical difficulties of getting grain out of Ukraine. We continue to implement spring planting on some crops such as sugar beet. It has already been completed. The acreage area which is on the screen is what is our plan for the entire year. We decreased acreage under corn, but we increased planting of soybeans and sugar beets because we are processing those in-house, and we would like to see a higher self-sufficiency in those. The situation in the global market remains rather volatile because of the stop-and-go mode of the seaborne exports out of Ukraine. The news of today is that the seaborne route via Odesa remains open for another two months.
Obviously, this kind of timeline of two months does not provide a high level of certainty. Still, the volumes of exports out of Ukraine are constantly expanding, and we see progress on other ports, such as Danube. We see expanding rail transportation of grains, as well as via trucks. The global prices for the key grain commodities such as wheat and corn lowered somewhat. What is favorable to us is the eventual narrowing between the Ukrainian ex-works prices and global prices, which are benefited by higher export capacity from Ukraine.
As we explained during our last call, there was a restriction on import of certain grain and oilseeds to the neighboring markets in Europe to Ukraine, transit remains intact. We also see positive developments on the Ukrainian side. The government of Ukraine also canceled licensing for other food products from Ukraine. We hope that the free trade agreement with Europe will stay in place in the foreseeable future. Free trade with EU helped us with exports of sugar. 15% of our revenues in the first quarter came from supplying sugar to the European market. The domestic market was also quite favorable, which allowed us to register a widening margin on the growth and EBITDA level.
With regards to the outlook, to this year, we see Ukrainian farmers increasing acreage under sugar beet. Despite the war, the level is expected at the pre-war level of over 220,000 hectares. We expect couple more mills to be in operation during this marketing year. Ukraine is actively exporting sugar, especially to the European market, because as you can see, the prices for white sugar remain quite high. We hear that Europe is experiencing one of the lowest stockpiles of sugar in the last several years, so we remain optimistic regarding Ukrainian sugar in the European markets. Soybean processing also remains strong. We are not alone among Ukrainian farmers who are expanding acreage under oilseeds at expense of corn.
This year we expect the soybean area further increase to 1.8 million hectares, which probably would allow Ukraine to register one of the highest 4 million ton soybean harvests. The abundance of soybeans in the Ukrainian market means a higher crushing margin for us, and this can clearly be seen in our results with EBITDA margin at 33% and EBITDA more than doubling from EUR 4 million- EUR 10 million. In cattle farming, we continue to increase production and sales. The milk price lowered a bit, but it still is at quite acceptable levels. This allowed us also to register a higher EBITDA at EUR 5 million. Since we announced our strategic priorities during the annual results, there is no change. We continue to increase production and sales.
We would like to integrate in the European markets, and we would like to move into higher added value products. With this, I would like to conclude the first part of our call and invite the participants to give us the questions. It would be easier if the questions are typed so I can read them out. You're also welcome to raise your hand if you would like to. Thank you, Jakub. While the acreage for soybeans will be expanded to maximize in-house crop supply for the processing plant, is it possible to significantly increase processing capacity? Our processing capacity is 230,000 tons of soybean crushing per year. We were operating close to our capacity in the last nine months.
The reason why we operated at a slightly lower capacity last year, for example, is because we had to stop crushing operations for several weeks, during the most intensive military hostilities in Ukraine. But this year, we hope to operate at full capacity. What increased acreage under soybeans will allow us is to increase self-sufficiency in non-GMO sustainable beans which we grow at our own fields. In the previous years, only 30% of soybeans were procured internally, while 70% was coming from independent local farmers. Us increasing acreage under soybeans in primary agriculture means that more than half of capacity will be covered by our own soybeans, which is the key benefit. Question regarding input ban to Western countries. Do you experience problems in exporting grains in second quarter?
I will do a quick introduction, and then I will ask Viacheslav Chuk, who is our commercial director, to expand further. The ban was not to Western countries as in total, but there was a one-month ban in the countries which are adjacent to the Ukrainian border, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary. The transit and sales into the EU markets remained intact. That was only a sale to the closest neighboring markets. Viacheslav, can you provide further comment on this, please?
Yeah, Yuliya, thank you very much for introduction words. I think that what I would like to add that major of our grains we exported before such ban, which was imposed by neighboring countries. As we know, starting from today, we have the renewal of the corridor. I think it will not impact our export of grains at the moment. Thank you.
Next question from Richard. Do you maintain all your contracts for land even when you're using less land? How close to your full potential land area are you sowing with spring crops? Yes, we maintain all contracts for land. The usage of land, if we are looking at the crop planting area that we show year on year, it does change depending on the crop rotation cycle. It also change, some of what land is shown on our slides are only land area under our core crops. Our core crops, from our disclosure are corn, wheat, sunflower seeds, soybeans, rapeseed, and of course, sugar beet. However, we do use all our farmland, and the remaining lands is under niche crops, such as...
Mustard, buckwheat, millet. Some land is used for the livestock, for growing feed for our livestock. When you see changes in the land area under planting in our slides, it doesn't show the whole farmland that we operate, but only those which are under the key 5 crops. Full potential. Yes, of course. We use all our land to the full potential. We gave this example that even 4,000 hectares of land, which was temporarily occupied in the north of the country last year, once it was free, we managed to return it into the crop rotation cycle for the spring planting. Since then, we operate all the land that we are leasing. Question on transportation fees. Are they still climbing or some stability taking place?
Viacheslav, what do you observe in the market, as we speak?
Yuliya, thank you very much. We see prices are stabilizing for the container freight, even decrease of prices. Less volumes still to export from Ukraine, so a bigger supply of grain hoppers and vehicles, trucks. Prices are quite stabilizing and with some even peculiarities to decrease. Thank you.
Next question is on the grain deal. Will this be again extended after 18th of July? Does the company has a plan B if deal is not extended? I will also start asking this question then pass the floor to Viacheslav. I think the grain deal is beneficial to all parties, the reason why it is not extended for a long period of time is only because the third party to this deal, Russia, is trying to negotiate better conditions for themselves. We do not see fundamentally why the grain deal would not extend. Of course, there is no certainty when the deal has extension terms which are actually quite short.
In terms of plan B, I think we demonstrated last year when the seaports were not operating, we managed to reroute our exports via overland routes. Here we also get some help from our European partners, which managed to help Ukraine to increase volumes of transportation by overland railway and truck routes. Viacheslav, would you like to add anything to this, please?
Yeah, Yuliya, thank you very much. I would like to add that yesterday we have announcement of the extension of the deal for another two months. Tomorrow, first inbound inspections are expected. As for the future, after two months, Yuliya explained already. I can confirm that from our side, we really have good partners in European Union, in Poland, in Romania, and we can find solutions through ports in Romania, through ports in Poland, and also through the new ports. Thank you.
Viacheslav, perhaps, we can also follow up on Richard's question. During fourth quarter 2022, when the Black Sea route was less threatened, what percentage of value was.
Excuse me, Yuliya.
Uh-huh.
I will answer for previous question.
Okay. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your question to me. Yeah, we don't have such plans like Kernel. We hope our capitalization or capitalization of our company will be grow up, depends our operation result this quarter and next quarter and next years. Yeah. Thank you for your question. Dear friend, if you have any questions to me also, please, because I don't have enough time, and I will go to next meeting today. Please. Thank you.
Thank you.
Yuliya, please go next.
Yes.
Next, please.
Yes. Richard, you also asked about fourth quarter 2022. What I will do is, I'll change my screen, and I will show our slide from the annual report. You will see the fourth quarter volumes on this slide. The data is in the annual results presentation. It is also available on our website. I think the picture is rather clear here.
Thank you. Very clear.
The management board recommends a dividend payment. With such a very good cash flow, is it possible to increase the proposed dividend payment amount for 2022? Jakub, the management board proposes a dividend payment, taking into account the current situation. If you were asking this question in the peace time, that would probably be relevant. At the moment, I think we still operate in very difficult environment, war-affected environment, and also uncertainty with exports. This is something that the management board and the supervisory board revise regularly. The recommendation to the annual meeting remains as it was published.
I think these were all the questions, unless we see another one popping up in the screen. Thank you very much for this short introductory call and for your questions. Any other inquiries, you can always write us an email or we can arrange for a one-on-one call. Thank you very much everyone. Have a nice afternoon.